In the manufacture of storage batteries, particularly lead-acid type storage batteries, one or more elements are provided within a battery case containing electrolyte. The elements generally comprise a plurality of alternately positive and negative battery plates each separated by a sheet of insulating material commonly referred to as separators. The battery plates each typically comprise a relatively fragile supporting grid having a lead paste applied thereto. conventional practice has been to form the battery elements so as to have one more negative plate than the number of positive plates so that the end most plates of each element are negative plates. The battery elements will thus contain an odd number of plates which may vary from as low as five plates on up to 25 plates depending on the desired capacity of the storage battery.
Various devices have been provided for assembling battery plates and separators into elements automatically to eliminate stacking by hand. Such devices have generally operated in one of two broad catagories. The first catagory utilizes a top lift system as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,790,536 issued Apr. 30, 1957, to Reed; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,830,692 issued Apr. 15, 1958 to Winkel. In the top lift arrangement, vacuum type suction devices or mechanical means are usually provided to lift individual battery plates and separators from the tops of feed stacks and arrange then into alternating battery elements. While the top lift system provides for ease in transferring thin, fragile separators and battery plates, movement through relatively large distances is generally required thereby reducing the speed at which systems can operate.
The second catagory of battery element forming apparatus utilize a bottom shuttle system in which individual plates or separators are stripped from the bottoms of stacks of feed stacks and deposited into battery elements. Examples of the shuttle type devices are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,897,950 issued Aug. 4, 1959 to Reed; 2,624,106 issued Jan. 6, 1953 to Lund; 2,652,933 issued Sept. 22, 1953 to Willard et al; 2,807,227 issued Sept. 24, 1957 to Kerns et al; and 2,908,377 issued Oct. 13, 1959 to Winkel et al. In the shuttle type devices, a pusher plate is generally provided for stripping a battery plate or separator by pushing motion parallel to the plane of the plate or separator. The disadvantage of this type of arrangement rests in the fact that the plate and separators are relatively fragile and are easily buckled during such pushing motion thereby often causing jams and disrupting the stacking process. A further disadvantage of this type of system is that the weight of the remaining members of the feed stack, from which the lower-most element is stripped, bears down upon the moving lower plate resulting in abrasive and frictional forces between the surfaces of the adjacent stationary member and the moving plate or separator. Attempts have been made to reduce such frictional forces, however, the shuttle type systems are generally limited in the speed at which they can be operated.